Professional Documents
Culture Documents
pollution by oil
A selection of articles previously
published by Gard AS
Gard AS, December 2013
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Gard AS, December 2013
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Contents
Disclaimer
The information contained in this publication is compiled from material previously published by Gard AS and is
provided for general information purposes only. Whilst we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy and quality
of the information provided at the time of original publication, Gard AS can accept no responsibility in respect of any
loss or damage of any kind whatsoever which may arise from reliance on information contained in this publication
regardless of whether such information originates from Gard AS, its shareholders, correspondents or other
contributors.
Introduction 5
Shipping industry guidance on the use of Oily Water Separators Ensuring compliance with MARPOL 6
Clearing of shore pipelines following cargo operations at terminals 8
US Pollution - California Certicates of Financial Responsibility (COFR) Requirements 10
Australian Pollution Law Oil Pollution Indemnity Clause for Penalties and Fines 11
Limitation of liability for pollution clean-up costs in China 13
The silent sentinels Increased use of remote marine pollution sensors 15
New Greek marine pollution legislation 17
New wine from old wineskins? - Current efforts to retrieve oil from sunken vessels 19
Australia toughens pollution laws 21
New Pollution Regulations in China - FAQs II 22
Charterers pollution liability in Brazil 24
Perfecting pollution prevention? - The State of Washington enacts a new statute 26
The state of environmental crime enforcement in the US 27
US law Criminal prosecutions of MARPOL violations 32
ICS/ISF guidance on environmental compliance 34
Oil and water dont mix 35
Environmental Crime Myths and Reality 36
Oily water separation and discharge: Risk of oil pollution versus vessels safety 37
The ner points of oil pollution 40
US Coast Guard formal policy on voluntary disclosure of MARPOL violations 43
Oily water separator bypass in the US - The tables are turned 44
US law - MARPOL violations in the US 45
Environmental crime - Oily water discharge off the East Coast of Canada 46
Pollution - The hard line taken by the French criminal courts on oil discharge from ships 47
Gard AS, December 2013
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Gard AS, December 2013
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Introduction
This booklet contains a collection of
loss prevention material relating to the
prevention of pollution by oil, which
over the years has been published by
Gard.
Discharges of oil from shipping,
offshore extraction of oil, and transport
of oil in pipelines is the result of either
accidents or normal, deliberate
operational discharges. Accidental
discharges (oil spills) may occur when
vessels collide, are in some sort of
distress at sea (engine breakdown,
fire, explosion), run aground, or when
there is a blowout of an offshore oil
well, or when a pipeline breaks. Much
can be done to avoid accidents,
but there will always be unfortunate
circumstances and situations that give
rise to accidents. Operational (i.e. non-
casualty-related) discharges often arise
during routine bunkering operations
and are usually caused by negligence/
lack of care. Other operational
discharges, e.g. discharge of bilge
water, fuel oil sludge, tank washings
etc., are deliberate in the sense
that the discharge is intended (and
permitted by the relevant legislation),
however, because the amount of
pollutant contained in the discharged
liquid exceeds the permitted amount,
this results in the discharge being
performed negligently. Such discharges
can be avoided.
The most important regulations
governing the prevention of pollution
by oil from ships are contained in
the International Convention for
the Prevention of Pollution from
Ships (MARPOL) Annex I and cover
prevention of pollution by oil from
operational measures as well as from
accidental discharges. With seaborne
oil trade growing steadily since 1970,
apart from a fall in the early 1980s
during the worldwide economic
recession, the aim of many of the safety
measures included in MARPOL Annex
I is to ensure that the majority of oil
tankers are safely built and operated,
and are constructed to reduce the
amount of oil spilled in the event of
an accident (e.g. segregated ballast
tanks, protected location of fuel tanks
and double hull). Although the greater
volume of the oil spilled can be linked
to tanker incidents, commercial vessels
other than tankers also contribute to
oil pollution and MARPOL Annex I
contains the required safety measures
to prevent and minimise also this type
of discharges (e.g. specific requirements
for discharge of oil residue (sludge) and
bilge water form machinery spaces).
Although all aspects related to the
prevention of pollution by oil are not
covered in this compilation, and local
authorities may have additional, and
sometimes stricter, requirements than
those contained in MARPOL Annex
I, this compilation will hopefully be a
useful aid in providing guidance, some
answers, or at the very least a pointer
in the right direction when it comes to
prevention of pollution by oil.
Gard AS, December 2013
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Shipping industry guidance
on the use of Oily Water
Separators Ensuring compliance
with MARPOL
Ensuring compliance with MARPOL
Shipping companies should:
Ensure that the ISM Safety
Management System* is used to
good effect
Conduct internal and external
audits on environmental
compliance and act upon the
findings, in full compliance with the
ISM Code
Require accountability on
environmental compliance issues
within the shore-side and shipboard
management team
Minimise waste leakage through
good housekeeping and
maintenance
Make the best use of the available
technology
Establish a realistic operating
budget for environmental
compliance
Provide meaningful and targeted
training in environmental awareness
and MARPOL compliance
Provide specific and targeted
training in oily water separator
(OWS) operation
Recognise the value of open
communication with the crew
Verify compliance through
appropriate physical inspection,
operational tests and document
analysis
Reward compliance and address
potential non-compliance.
Technical approaches
General
Shipping companies should consider:
Installing the latest equipment, or
an upgrade in capability, if existing
equipment does not perform to
requirements
Upgrading related equipment to
minimise the production of waste
The advantages of the pre-
processing of waste
Increasing tank capacity for waste
where possible
Modifying systems to facilitate in-
port testing of treatment systems
The global shipping industry is
committed to a zero tolerance
approach to any non-compliance with
the International Convention for the
Prevention of Pollution from Ships
(MARPOL). In particular, the industry
is committed to strict adherence to
International Maritime Organization
(IMO) requirements concerning the
use of Oily Water Separators and the
monitoring and discharge of oil into the
sea.
National maritime authorities with
responsibility for the environmental
protection of their coastlines quite
properly adopt a similarly strict approach
to the enforcement of MARPOL.
Companies and seafarers need to
understand that even the most minor
violations of MARPOL will be detected
by the authorities. In addition to large
fi nes amounting to literally millions of
dollars, both company management
and seafarers can be liable to criminal
prosecution and imprisonment for
any deliberate violation of MARPOL
requirements or falsifi cation of records.
The following industry guidelines
are intended to highlight some of
the issues concerning the use of oily
water separators (OWS) and to remind
company management, and shipboard
personnel, how they can act to prevent
MARPOL infringements.
Ship operators have ultimate
responsibility for establishing a
compliance culture within their
companies, and it is important that every
effort is made to ensure that seafarers
do not engage in any illegal conduct in
the mistaken belief that it will benefit
their employer. Every seafarer should
be made fully aware of the severe legal
consequences, both for the company and
the seafarers themselves, of even minor
non-compliance with environmental rules.
At first glance, the following advice
may appear to contain nothing new;
for the vast majority of shipping
companies, these are issues which
should already be fully addressed by
their Safety Management Systems, as
required by the International Safety
Management (ISM) Code. Nevertheless,
it is strongly recommended that the
following guidance is carefully analysed
by company management, and that a
firm message of zero tolerance of non-
compliance with MARPOL is circulated
as widely as possible amongst seagoing
personnel.
Implementing the periodic testing
of the oil discharge monitoring
equipment
The use of cleaning agents
consistent with equipment
capability.
Control devices
Shipping companies should consider:
Fitting uniquely numbered
environmental tags on flanges to
prevent unauthorised by-passing
Using seals on overboard valves
and cross-connections
Installing strategically placed
placards concerning compliance
with MARPOL on board ship
Fitting surveillance cameras
Using tamper resistant recording
systems, alarms and printouts
to verify equipment operation,
valve position, flow, OWS ppm,
incineration, ships position etc.
Installing locked boxes or cages
over monitoring equipment
Fitting interlocks to prevent
falsification of monitoring
equipment inputs
Using meters to record equipment
running time for all engine room
pumps.
Management approaches
Role of shore management
Shipping companies should:
Assign environmental responsibility
to senior management and ship
superintendents, Masters and Chief
Engineers on board ships
Ensure adequacy of internal audits
and implementation of corrective
actions
Review maintenance records
and procedures, log entries and
handover notes
Monitor workloads imposed by the
operation and maintenance of oily
water separators, and assess the
impact on crew priorities
Analyse waste streams to
determine content, volume, means
and capacity for storage, and
estimate realistically the cost of
treatment and disposal
Gard AS, December 2013
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Ensure that the operating budget
for waste removal and spare parts is
adequate
Establish comprehensive check lists
for inspections/audits
Verify that tests have been
performed to ensure the continued
correct operation of oily water
separators
Discuss findings and concerns
with all levels of the engineering
department
Explore the potential gains from
the installation of new technology.
Training
Shipping companies should:
Ensure that training, whether
shipboard, in-house or from an
outside authority, is specific on
relevant MARPOL requirements
Consider supplementary training
on MARPOL issues
Document the training and assess
its relevance
Establish formal policy documents
and procedures on MARPOL
compliance and training.
Audits and inspections
Shipping companies should:
Ensure that audits target the correct
operation and maintenance of oily
water separators
Ensure that audits are designed
to investigate environmental
compliance
Use a comprehensive audit check
list and try to investigate beyond
the check list
Conduct unannounced inspections
Verify:
- routine maintenance
- internal record keeping policies
- the accuracy of records by cross-
referencing
- the progress of training
- that written policies are available
Test equipment under routine
operational conditions
Interview crew members
Produce written audit reports
Conduct post-audit meetings
Ensure senior management review
the audit reports
Track audit findings until corrective
action is complete.
The role of senior management on
board the ship
General
The Master, Chief Engineer and senior
officers in the engine department should:
Promote awareness that
any attempt to circumvent
MARPOL requirements is totally
unacceptable
Determine the most appropriate
procedures to maintain equipment
and systems
Minimise and if possible
eliminate leakage through good
housekeeping
Correctly maintain the oil record
book (ORB) and the record of
discharges of oily water separator
effluent into the sea
Ensure that all routine shipboard
and ISM safety meetings include
time to discuss a specific agenda
item on environmental matters
Use sign on/off check lists for duty
personnel.
Use of Oily Water Separators
The Master, Chief Engineer and senior
officers in the engine department should:
Instruct users of OWS equipment
and verify the standard achieved
Verify that maintenance schedules
are being followed
Ensure that audits include
operational tests and a
reconciliation of records
Ensure that scheduled tank
sounding logs are maintained and
signed for
Keep records of verification of
correct operation through testing at
sea
Ensure that on board spares are
adequate to meet the demand
Create a culture where
complacency in operation
and maintenance standards is
unacceptable.
Record keeping
The Master, Chief Engineer and senior
officers in the engine department should:
Ensure that all entries in the tank
sounding log, ORB (oil record
book